House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer will deliver an immediate, live response to President Trump’s Tuesday night Oval Office address regarding the ongoing government-funding negotiations, the pair announced Tuesday.
Democratic leadership demanded Monday night that the major cable and broadcast networks provide them equal air time to respond to Trump’s characterization of the ongoing government shutdown and the status of the negotiations to end it.
“Now that the television networks have decided to air the President’s address, which if his past statements are any indication will be full of malice and misinformation, Democrats must immediately be given equal airtime,” Pelosi and Schumer said in their joint statement.
The leaders went on to deride Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion in border wall funding as complete non-starter and accuse him of “hurting the country” by extending the partial government shutdown into its third week.
Trump, who plans to travel to the southern border on Thursday, has publicly entertained the possibility of bypassing Congress and funding the wall unilaterally by declaring a national emergency and drawing on discretionary military funds. Vice President Mike Pence told reporters Monday that the White House Counsel’s Office is exploring the legality of such a move.
In his Tuesday night address, Trump reportedly plans to continue making the case that the recent influx of Central American families arriving on the southern border constitutes a national emergency.